Tag Archives: budget meals

Morroccan Pumpkin with Cous Cous- Frugal Friday

Posted on by
15

a good slurp of olive oil

some finely diced garlic

sliced onion

knob of diced ginger

good sprinkle of cumin

another good sprinkle of coriander

make it a dash of cinnamon

pop in some cut up pumpkin

cook it all until the pumpkin is soft

now add some english spinach roughly chopped

season it

now wilt it down

slap it on a mound of cous cous

add a dollop of natural greek style yoghurt

be generous with some dried chilli* (or fresh)

and serve it up

Frugal Friday dinner made in a very short space of time

 

* chilli gives your dinner some attitude… I like my meal with attitude

 

Sourdough Flat bread

Posted on by
27

Sometimes I don’t feel like thinking “what am I going to cook for dinner”.  I really love cooking, but sometimes I get tired of trying to hide vegetables, mixing tasty and healthy together, and generally being in the kitchen…. Sometimes the call of the outside is just too strong and the The Monkeys are just begging for rumbles in a park, rather than watching me cook another dinner in the kitchen.

Times like that I cook Bolognese. Whats so exciting about that? It will last 3 days and no one will ever realise that just ate the same meal that got upcycled…huh?

Follow if you will…

Day One– Cook up a lovely BIG batch of Bolognese Sauce. Finely dice those all those vegetables so the kids/partners don’t actually suspect there might be a whole garden in there.

DINNER- Spaghetti Bolognese… Buon Apettito!

Day Two- Now in another pot add oil, lots of lovely cumin, coriander, red kidney beans and perhaps a little chilli. Now add it to your bolognese. Bolognese just turned into Mexican flavours. Cook up some rice and spoon your mexican beans on top. A dollop of sourcream on the side, and a wedge of lime.

DINNER- Mexican Beans and Rice… Pass the Corona please.

Day Three– Now you still have a bit of the Bolognese/Mexican Beans in a pot but it surely isn’t enough to feed every one again. However if you add, a fried egg on top of the beans, some chopped up fresh tomato, spanish onion, coriander, a little avocado and a dollop of the sour cream, and serve with some lovely flat bread, your away.

DINNER- Huevos Rancheros… Would please any Mariachi band member.

I didn’t ‘pretty’ this one up at all. But you get the picture.

Sourdough Flatbreads

1 cup of sourdough starter

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tps salt

1/2 tps bicarb soda

1 1/2 tbs olive oil

water (I’m not sure how much I put in, go slowly until the right consistancy)

Let it rise in a lovely warm spot until double in size. A quick knead, and then divide into equal balls. Rolling dough out until quite flat, then cook under the grill and turning once. Should cook in just a couple of minutes. Serve straight away or freeze them for a rainy day.

Sourdough Oat Cakes

Posted on by
13

Are they a pancake or are they a pikelet? Or a they simply an oat cake? I started making pancakes with oats in them quite awhile ago.

1/ It was something to do with left over porridge. (as an alternative to my grandmothers staple ‘mock brains‘).

2/ I added a lower glycemic index to the old pancake.

3/ I thought it was a bit tastier and more substantial than a traditional pancake recipe.

Not that I don’t love the traditional kind, but I am always hungry not long after, and with the added oats it keeps The Monkeys going longer as well. One day while talking to a Scottish friend, these little pancakes came up. She said that she had always made them and back home she called them oat cakes. There you go… oat cakes sounds much more appealing than porridge pancakes.

Now seeing as though I was well and truly aboard the sourdough train, I thought lets see what happens if I add some starter. I had originally wanted to make sourdough crumpets, but didn’t have any rings to cook in them so this was somewhere between. I was mixing it all up and Mr Chocolate went past asking what I was making… just playing. Seeing what will happen if I add this and this and then do this…

Verdict?

Deeelicious! Well thats what Monkey Boy said anyway. I’m sure the Little Monkey meant it too with his cheeks stuffed full like a squirrel. My oat cakes will now always be sourdough oatcakes. Gobbled up with in minutes.

Sourdough oatcakes

1 cup sourdough starter

1 cup plain flour

1 cup milk

50 gms butter

2/3 cup whole oats

1/2 tps bicarb soda

Put butter and oats in microwave together, (butter on top) and heat till melted. Add starter, flour, milk, buttery oats to mixer (I used a dough hook) and mix until well combined. Fold in bicarb soda and let sit for 3 hours in warm spot. Spoon into frying pan and cook as you would pancakes.